


The Library

by Squarepeg72



Series: From the Peg Board [29]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Blood, Dark, Gen, Minor Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-26
Updated: 2018-02-26
Packaged: 2019-03-24 05:18:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 736
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13804239
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Squarepeg72/pseuds/Squarepeg72
Summary: Hermione finds Theo huddled among the books in the library. What has he done?





	The Library

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Hermione's Haven's February Roll-A-Drabble
> 
> Pairing: Theo  
> Trope: Dark
> 
> Warnings: Implied murder, minor character death
> 
>  
> 
> [](https://www.flickr.com/photos/148170750@N07/38679108180/in/dateposted-public/)  
> 

Hermione was not supposed to be here. She was in the restricted section of the library, after hours, because she needed to find information on a series of hexes she had seen Death Eaters use in the Battle of Hogwarts last spring. She needed to find a way to counter them so she would not be caught unprepared again. She was planning to apply to the internship programs in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement when she finished her final year at Hogwarts and she wanted to be prepared for anything. Lifting her candle around the corner, Hermione gasped.

Theodore Nott was huddled against the shelves Hermione was headed for. He was curled up tightly and shaking. Hermione whispered his name, but he was not moving. Creeping closer, Hermione reached out to touch Theo on the shoulder. He started and began to mumble. “I didn’t mean to … don’t tell Father … Oh sweet Merlin … He is never going to forgive me …”

“Theo, are you okay?” Hermione whispered as she tried to to get him to unwind. “Theo, let go of your legs. I need to make sure you are okay.” Hermione set her candle on a nearby shelf and sat beside him on the floor. “Theo, what have you done?”

He wrapped his arms around his legs tighter and began to rock back and forth. “Father will never forgive me … I didn’t mean too … He should never have pushed me …” 

Hermione reached out to touch his hand. She noticed he was clutching a large scrap of dark red fabric in his left hand. “Theo, let me have the rag. I need to make sure you are okay,” Hermione continue to talk quietly to him as he rocked back. “Theo, you are not making any sense. Your father can’t hurt you now. He is in Azkaban and will never leave. Please, let go of the rag.”

“Father is coming again… Nothing can hold him … he told me he would be back,” Theo muttered as Hermione began to loosen his fingers from their grip on the scrap of fabric. “He will never let me go … I need to hide … He is never going to forgive me…” 

“Theo, why is this fabric wet?” Hermione began to examine the cloth she had finally freed from his tight grip. “Is this blood? Theo, are you hurt?”

“Father is going to hurt me again … I can’t let him hurt me again …” Theo grabbed for the fabric Hermione had taken from him. “I need to hide this… Father was here … He said he would be back …”

Hermione began to look over Theo as he continued to rock. She could tell that the fabric he had reclaimed was part of a men’s white shirt and was covered in blood, but she could not tell whose blood it was. “Theo, please, let me help you. Let me take you to the infirmary.” Hermione tried to pull Theo to his feet. “We need to have Madame Pomfrey look at you. It is safe. I promise no one will hurt you if you come with me.”

He shrunk away from Hermione and tried to hide in the shadows created by Hermione’s candle. “He is in here … Don’t go to the next row … We have to be quiet …” Theo continued to rock as his voice became nothing but a whisper. “Father is here … he is going to kill me … don’t go in the next row … he is waiting …”

Hermione turned to walk to the end of the shelves. Theo’s hand shot out and grabbed her ankle. “You can’t leave … he is waiting … he will hurt you and then he will kill me …”

She gently removed Theo’s death grip from her ankle. “Theo, let me check the end of the stacks. We need to get you out of here.” Hermione crept to the end of the shelves as she continued to whisper to Theo. “There is no one here. Let me check the next row and then we will leave.”

Hermione gasped as she looked down the next row of shelves. Theodore Nott Sr. was laying between the shelves of the next row, shirt torn, and blood leaking from several locations on his chest. Hermione walked back to Theo. Shakily, she placed her hand on his shoulder as terror began to rise in her chest. “Theo, we are safe. Your father is never going to hurt you again. I promise.”


End file.
